Belle

An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis

Belle is the story of the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral
and an African slave who is raised in English privilege by her great uncle. True
enough, but that’s barely a hint of what unfolds in this visually beautiful
period movie with an undercurrent of far more complexity than just social
disapproval.
Lord and Lady
Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson) are raising two nieces – one is Dido
Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw); the other is Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon). In a
lovely bit of irony, Dido has an inheritance from her parents while Elizabeth
has none. As the girls face the marriage marketplace, Elizabeth
enters the competition with looks, breeding and worry born of her empty pockets
while Dido enters with looks, mixed race illegitimacy, and disinterest enabled
by her inheritance.
While the
girls grow up as equals in family love and privilege, Dido must eat alone when
visitors come in order to avoid violating the prevailing culture publicly. Their
world is sprinkled with calculating mothers of prospective suitors (Miranda
Richardson as Lady Ashford) for both girls. In the race to become the property
of an eligible man, Dido’s inheritance permits a marriage for love. Of the
Ashfords she says, “My greatest misfortune would be to marry into a family who
would carry me as their shame.”
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
is perfect as Belle. Her own natural grace and intelligence allow her to infuse
Belle with an interesting mix of the necessary acceptance shot through at times
with her scrappy spirit. This is an actress who will be able to handle whatever
roles come her way, and come they will. She’s that good.
For much of
its length, Belle is a familiar ramble through the privilege enjoyed by the
British aristocracy. Sunlit lawns glisten and generations stroll as they play
their roles in the social competition. Quite suddenly, after mere hints of an
unfamiliar turn to come, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield is presiding over the
King’s Bench while England waits for his decision in a case where an entire
shipload of slaves had been thrown into the sea in order to collect cargo
insurance.
At this point
Belle and her idealistic new love, John Davinier (Sam Reid), son of a vicar,
confront Lord Mansfield with impassioned pleas about the reality of the
corruption and the stain of slavery. And then we have the grand pleasure of
watching the ever fine Tom Wilkinson navigate his own value system to a decision
that became England’s first step in abolishing slavery. This was 1783, eight
decades before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
You will see
a lovely period costume drama that is invigorated – in the hands of Director
Amma Asante – by historical events usually absent from such films. England is
abuzz with fallout from the recent loss of the American Colonies and from a
national debate that leads the country to the abolition of slavery. The outside
world has entered the gates of Kenwood in Hampstead.